New Blog

Go figure that I make my blog private and immediately start running into problems with space again.

You can find our new blog here: http://knshawfamily.blogspot.com/

Nothing fancy because I'm a terrible blogger but I started uploading to it a month ago so there are some recent posts on it. For now, it's not private but if we decide to go that route I'll invite everyone again

Baby #3

A few posts back a friend commented I needed to update my blog header to include Clara. Looks like I'll just be waiting until April to do any updating! Yes I'm that lazy/tired/pregnant. This post is really for personal journaling purposes but I thought I'd put it here for those interested in our story of how we decided to be crazy enough to try for a #3 at the end of dental school here goes-

After I had Clara, like just weeks after, I asked my friend Brittany who already had 2 kiddos if she ever had the feeling she was missing a child to take care of. I was in such overwhelmed mommy care taking mode that I found myself constantly getting both girls content then looking around for the other child to care for. It was happening multiple times a day and I  blamed it on lack of sleep. She told me she'd never experienced that but her mom did and soon after she would find herself pregnant again. It spooked me a little but I moved on with life and continued to have occasional panic attacks in which I would look for the other child I did not have that I was convinced needed my attention. After the initial 3 months of normal baby fussiness/sleepless nights, Clara revealed herself to be an amazingly easygoing baby. My adjustment to two was honestly wonderful and I found my body healing so much quicker than it did with Mackenzie. I think it was January that I started feeling like God was just prepping me to have another one soon. It made me anxious that everything was going so smoothly and that I knew I was going to get a shot at feeling well enough to have another baby before we left Kentucky.

Keith and I would discuss our options occasionally. When I was pregnant with Clara, I didn't want to be pregnant ever again. I'm so grateful to be able to get pregnant but I am one of those women who is sick and uncomfortable 95% of the pregnancy. There is no honeymoon second trimester it's just one long blur of nausea, back pain, sleepless nights, cramping, headaches, mood swings, rapid weight gain, joint pain, acid reflux, ect.

So with that pregnancy, Keith and I agreed fully that I shouldn't get pregnant again for awhile. Another 3 year gap between kids sounded great to us. Well Clara's birth went better than I could have ever anticipated. Recovery was much faster and even though I had gained almost as much weight as I did with Kenz, I shed it in a quarter of the time. We did the math and realized we would have to get pregnant before Clara was 10 months old if we wanted another Kentucky baby. Keith graduates in May and I knew an April baby would be the latest I could handle. I also didn't want to move pregnant so we ruled that option out.

We found ourselves at a point where we were both ready for me to be pregnant again (trust me it's just about as hard on Keith as it is on me) and were in total agreement. The day I found out I was pregnant (July 27th), I woke up with the slightest twinge of morning sickness.

I tend to not feel very well when I'm nursing, plenty of fluctuating hormones going on there and daily bouts of nausea but this was different. So I got up right as Keith left (he usually wakes me before he leaves) around 6:45 and took a pregnancy test. Nothing showed up right away and I was kind of thinking I wasn't so I left it there and kind of forgot about it. An hour later I went to check and found the smallest positive glimmer. I was honestly a little shocked. I took another one shortly after to be sure and it came out more positive than the first. My brain was in overdrive trying to process the idea of having 3 kids with these last two just 19 months apart. I didn't call Keith because he usually doesn't answer his phone during the day but I also wanted to surprise him.

I took one more test about an hour before he came home that came out darker than the previous two and lined them up on the bathroom counter. Above them on the mirror I wrote in lip gloss "Hey Dad of 3, what will it be?" with an arrow pointing to the tests. When he got home, it took me forever to lure him into the bathroom and of course he didn't notice the big message smeared across the mirror. After some chit chat I finally said, "Keith, look!" 

He was definitely surprised and so excited. His excitement eased my mind a bit. He's really close in age with his siblings so he was excited to have two so close. I waited the weekend through to call the doctors to set up an appointment and they couldn't get me in until I was 9 weeks along. It was a long 5 week wait as I actually kept my mouth shut and told no one about the pregnancy. I had to lie to the friend who watched my kids for my appointment so she wouldn't know where I was really going.

One of the reasons I kept my lips sealed was because I felt so much better than I did with the previous 2 pregnancies. I didn't get sick immediately, the morning sickness kicked in about 7 weeks and even then, I usually only spent two miserable hours on the couch and some sleepless nights up with stomach pain. The worst of it only lasted about 3 weeks. I had no real food aversions and my only big complaint was how tired I was. It was so much easier to hide because I wasn't  feeling so dang sick all of the time like I had with Kenz and Clara.

I was also really paranoid about having a miscarriage. My previous miscarriage I hadn't experienced many symptoms either and I was due the last day of March with that baby and April 5th with this baby. I was fully prepared for bad news when I went to the OB and so I was definitely relieved when I saw that little baby on the ultrasound with a strong heartbeat and due date that matched the date I had.

I'm really happy to be able to go back to Dr. Nett. I loved her so much last time and feel I'm in good hands. I had another appointment at 13 weeks and will have one this Friday at 18 weeks. I'm feeling ok. This pregnancy is flying! We have an ultrasound scheduled for the 20th of November but we're not sure we'll find out the gender. I really want to experience a surprise in the delivery room, Keith is warming up to the idea.

I have two decent belly pics. This one at 4 weeks as a before pic:

 

 This one at 17 weeks:

Going Private

I didn't really think there would come a time it felt necessary to make our blog private but I decided to check the google tracker here on blogger and found that this month I didn't recognize most of the referring URL's. I clicked the first one and it was a pornogrpahic website. The other addresses looked similar and I was so disturbed by all of these random sites we're somehow linked to and all of the weird traffic we're getting. Sorry for the inconvenience, but e-mail me at [email protected] or leave a comment with your e-mail if you would like to be added.

Clara's 1st Birthday

 

Who knew 1 year could pass so swiftly? Clara has been such a joy in our lives. Though Mackenzie can be rough with her, she loves and protects her unconditionally. She is usually the first to bring a smile to my face every morning when she wakes up and says in her sweet voice, "hi" and she has successfully wrapped Keith around her little finger.

I attempted this 3 year layer cake I saw on pinterest. When I saw it a few months ago, I knew it was the cake I wanted to make for Clara because it was so soft and pretty. Her Birthday was a Sunday so I couldn't run to the store for powdered sugar when I needed more frosting so I just tried to make do with what I had. It wasn't quite what I had pictured, but it was fun to make and I think Clara would have enjoyed anything.

 Here she is cheering for herself. She wasn't shy at all, just excited for the attention from her family and a couple of her friends.

 Here's the doll we got her. My mom also sent some cute outfits which I don't have pictures of, just video. She wasn't really into opening gifts, I'm sure she'll have more fun at Christmas.

 Right before bedtime, I told Keith I wanted a photo with Clara and Kenzie photobombed it. Their faces and Kenzie's bday suit cracked me up when I went back through the pictures.

A little about Clara at one year:

• She loves bananas- she eats one every morning. When I get her in her high chair I ask if she wants a banana and she'll chant "nana!" over and over. When I give it to her, she gives me the best smile.
• She can say nana, mama, dada, uh-oh, hi. 
• She loves to take baths
• She is really gentle with books. I often find her flipping through them slowly, never tearing them.
• She doesn't really like milk but otherwise isn't picky with her food. She quit nursing just a few days shy of her birthday. She pretty much self-weaned which was really nice for me as she was never a gentle nurser.
• She has 7 teeth with 3 more (molars) breaking through. 
• Kenzie is her favorite person in the world
• She loves her binky, especially to go to sleep
• She likes soft things and sleeps with her stuffed lamb and cuddles her blankets
• Starting to hate her carseat, if she wasn't so small I would probably forward face her
• She is about 19 lbs and 29 1/2 inches
• She likes to snuggle:)
• She gives smiles to just about everybody
• She loves to be outside and is quite the climber! She's so much more adventurous than Mackenzie. She's mastered the little playground outside and will even climb the stairs and send herself down the tunnel slide either on her bum or belly while I wait to catch her at the bottom.
• We love her!

August

 That Utah post just overwhelms me so we'll keep putting it off for a bit:) August was a really fun month. We continued to play outside and sometimes ventured up to the pool. Kenz still isn't a fan of the water and failed miserably at taking lessons. Clara loved the water but it usually tired us all out so much that I gave up going regularly. Kenzie's a great helper and loves to share yogurt with Clara.

 Keith put the girls in this little red wagon and took them around for rides.

 

 We celebrated Keith's 29th birthday on the 9th with a few close friends and mud pie:

We renewed our zoo pass in the spring and received free tickets to their dinosaur exhibit. It was really cool. Kenzie was scared and Clara didn't know what to think of it.

I surprised Keith with tickets to a Journey concert at the KY state fair for his bday. He was really excited. Loverboy opened and then Pat Benatar sang for an hour. We sat in the very back of the stadium but had a great view of the crazy drunks in front of us acting out every song. It really was a blast.

These two can play so cute together:

 Clara was eating anything and everything. She loves to kick back in her chair and take control of mealtime

 Keith was a little annoyed when I came home with this yard sale purchase since we had just cleared off our patio but I knew Kenzie would love this easel. She loves to paint:

 Just threw these in cuz she's so pretty:

 I don't take enough sleeping pics.

 In my bed in the morning because she just can't seem to sleep through the night more than a week in a row

 Little smartie. Clara was being quiet in her room and I found her like this "painting" her toenails. For the record, I've painted her nails once  and it was several months ago so it surprised me she knew what to do with the little play nailpolish.

Before Utah

It seems like the month between the end of the worst semester of dental school and our month long trip to Utah in June was a complete blur. I know we played some volleyball, went for lots of walks with friends, hit up the zoo a few times, and spent a lot of time out at the park. I have no pictures any of it so you'll have to take my word for it. What I can prove...

 These two started interacting with each other a lot. Kenzie has always smothered Clara but it started to be reciprocated a bit.

The days of them sharing a room without issues completely ended! Mackenzie loves to climb into bed with Clara and she's known to wake her up as much she can. They also can't fall asleep together as they just want to stay up until midnight playing.

 Kenzie did a little tumbling class with my friend Kassie. She absolutely loved it. I can't say that she was always attentive or showed great aptitude but she did better than I expected and let Miss Kassie help her with most of the elements.

Right before we left, Elder Bradford stopped by to say goodbye. Keith's been the ward mission leader for a little over a year and Elder Bradford served in our ward for about 9 months so we knew him pretty well. We've been lucky to have several good elders lately who have finally motivated (harassed) me to finish my mormon.org profile. Keith's was done months ago of course, I just had a hard time sitting down and doing it. I'm so glad I finally took the time to finish it. It's always good to ask yourself those basic questions of "Why am I a Mormon?" and "How do I live my faith?"

Being Belle

Our friends saw this dress at a yard sale and thought of us. A phone call, a little bartering and $1 made us proud owners of a dress that retails for more than anything in my closet. Kenzie couldn't have been more excited to receive such a beautiful dress. It's deals like this that keep me out on Saturday mornings and make me grateful for friends with boys:)